India says no to Pak Railways

NEW DELHI (INP) - The Indian Railways remains cool to Pakistans proposal to take 50 train engines on lease from India. 'Domestic demand remains high. Any commitment to Pakistan at this stage would mean a compromise on domestic requirement, said Rajeev, Managing Director of Rail India Technical and Economic Services, which supervises overseas services. In India, Railway officials are not in favour of the deal with Pakistan, for the 'corporate risk it entails. 'Relations with Pakistan being what they are, there will always remain the apprehension that India will not get its money back, a Railway Ministry official said. The officials also said they had received no official communication on the proposal while External Affairs Ministry officials said they had 'no idea. The Indian Railways has 4,214 electric and 6,000 diesel engines. About 200 engines roll out of each of its two public sector manufacturing units every year. It is massively short of its Vision 2020 target of 1,200 engines annually. But despite this, tenders for the supply of engines to Bangladesh and Myanmar are currently being processed.